Boeing Plane Accident Again... Emergency Landing Due to Engine Fire This Time

Engine Found with Hole Larger than Baseball

Controversy surrounds Boeing, the American aircraft manufacturer, as a series of accidents have occurred involving its planes, with the latest incident involving a fire in the engine of a Boeing 747 aircraft. The 747 is one of Boeing's flagship models.

Boeing 747 cargo plane on fire in the engine
[Photo by AP Yonhap News]

According to foreign media including the AP on the 19th (local time), a Boeing 747-8 cargo plane operated by Atlas Air made an emergency landing at Miami International Airport in Florida the previous day due to an engine fire shortly after takeoff. A video taken by a witness captured the cargo plane flying with flames coming from the engine area. All five crew members on board were unharmed.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspected the cargo plane involved in the accident and found a softball-sized hole (slightly larger than a baseball) on the engine. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) plan to investigate the accident.

The aircraft has been in operation for eight years and is equipped with four General Electric engines.

Boeing Aircraft Faces Controversy Amid Consecutive Accidents

Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who attended the World Economic Forum (WEF, Davos Forum) in Davos, Switzerland, was scheduled to return home on a Boeing 737 aircraft (a U.S. Air Force plane), but a defect was discovered, forcing him to use a replacement aircraft. A 'serious malfunction' related to oxygen leakage was found on this plane. Although Secretary Blinken and his party boarded the plane for their return, they were informed that 'oxygen leakage was detected but repairs were not completed,' and had to disembark.

The problematic aircraft was a Boeing plane that recently experienced an incident where a part of the fuselage side called the 'door plug' detached during flight. The Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft recently made an emergency landing in the U.S. after a hole was found in the fuselage during flight. Not only the U.S., but several European countries also temporarily suspended operations and conducted inspections. There are 215 aircraft of this model currently in operation worldwide.

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport also sent an official letter to domestic airlines instructing them to inspect the airframes of Boeing 737 Max 8 models. According to the ministry, no domestic airlines currently operate the Boeing 737 Max 9 model involved in the recent accident. However, since 14 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, a similar model from the same manufacturer, are in operation domestically, the ministry proactively requested inspections to ensure there are no defects.

The 737 Max model was grounded worldwide for 20 months following two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that resulted in 346 deaths. The FAA imposed a complete ban on the operation of this model in March 2019 but lifted the ban in November 2020.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.